Madness will play the series on Friday, May 31 in the specially erected six pole marquee that will be installed as part of the weekend-long series of concerts on Limerick’s waterfront.

The Nutty Boys, as they are commonly known, enjoy an unrivalled reputation as one of Britain’s greatest and most enduring live acts. They headlined The House of Common Festival in London’s Clapham Common in 2016 and 2017 and wowed audiences when they played the main stage at Electric Picnic.

They are one of the top 20 selling UK groups of all time, with seven top ten albums to their name and concert promoter Mick Dolan said “securing Madness to play Live at the Docklands in our first year is a real coup.

“The band achieved massive success in the mid-1980s spending 214 weeks in the UK singles charts over the course of that decade. This is a band that never fails to raise the roof and we are certain that audiences from Limerick and further afield will have the time of their lives on the June Bank Holiday weekend.”

Greene and the RTE concert orchestra will play on Saturday, June 1 and it is anticipated that further musical acts will be announced over the coming weeks.

The events will be hosted in a specially erected Marquee, giving Dolan’s the largest capacity venue it has brought to Limerick city to date, understood to be in the region of 3,500 people.

“Dolans Presents sees an opportunity to be more ambitious when it comes to the planning of large-scale events that put the city on the map,” said booker Mick Dolan, of the family run venue based on the Dock Road who also book gigs at King John’s Castle, which has a capacity for around 2,000 people.

“Dolan’s is striving to continue to improve and to invest heavily in our programming as well as developing our off-site production spaces under the brand of Dolans Presents.

“As Limerick grows in confidence and witnesses continued job creation and investment, it is our belief that there is now significant opportunity for Limerick to capitalise on this story using culture, music and festivals to complement the physical and economic revival,” he added.

Working closely with the Shannon Foynes Port Company (SFPC), Dolan’s have identified the area of Limerick Docks located just off Atlas Avenue as a location for the first year of the Live at the Docklands series.

As plans to redevelop the Dockland area located in the vicinity of the Dock Clock and James Casey Walk/Clayton Hotel come to fruition it is proposed that the concert series would have an opportunity to relocate to this space as it grows in size.

SFPC unveiled its Limerick Docklands Framework strategy, a multi-million euro plan to transform Limerick’s Docklands, in March of this year.

Mick Dolan said the Live at the Docklands shows in 2019 would act as a warm up for further growth in 2020 – which also coincides with Dolan’s 25th anniversary. It is understood that the intention is to have annual gigs at the riverside location.

“With the delivery of this new concert series in 2019, we are convinced that year one will give us a superb opportunity to grow further in June 2020. The reintroduction of the JP McManus Pro Am at Adare Manor and the fact that 2020 is also the year Galway celebrates its year as European Capital of Culture presents us with an opportunity to capitalize on a new audience base right on our doorstop,” he said.

“With good planning, programming and marketing we believe the new Live at the Docklands concept has the potential to become an annual event that attracts significant audiences to Limerick from across the country are further afield,” he added.

Tickets for Madness Live at the Docklands in Limerick will go on sale this Friday morning.

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